The Blog of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference

News from the Delaware Public Archives: New Digital Features

Within the last several months, the Delaware Public Archives website, archives.delaware.gov, has undergone a dramatic transformation in order to be more user-friendly for our e-patrons. In addition, two new exciting collections have been added to our growing digital archive. One of these new additions is the Vietnam Mailbag collection. This group of materials features correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs compiled by Nance E. Lynch for her “Vietnam Mailbag” column in the Wilmington Morning News. Correspondence includes nearly nine hundred letters from Delaware soldiers in Vietnam, describing their viewpoints on the war, life in Vietnam, and the home front. These records were used in Lynch’s book, Vietnam Mailbag: Voices from the War, 1968-1972. Following the publication of her book in 2008, Lynch donated the collection to the Delaware Public Archives.

Delaware Flag being displayed in Vietnam (Vietnam Mailbag Collection)

The second new feature added to the DPA digital archive is the Project Delaware collection. Consisting of a set of photographic slides taken of the Delaware landscape from a helicopter and several airplanes by Lloyd Teitsworth and Dee Andrews, this collection was created in 1970. The project, funded by Mr. and Mrs. Ellice McDonald of Montchanin, Delaware consists of 1,420 aerial view color slides documenting the state, especially the coastline and state boundaries. Other major subjects include the Christina River from its source to the Delaware River, Cherry Island, Wilmington Marine Terminal, Fort Delaware, Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, Artificial Island, lighthouses, Getty Refinery, Appoquinimink River, Mispillion River, Broadkill River, Lewes and Rehoboth Canal, Indian River, Cypress Swamp, Nanticoke River, and the northern arc boundary. Cities and towns, including Wilmington, Newark, Smyrna, Dover, Milford, and Rehoboth Beach are also represented.

About MARAC

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) is a professional organization for archivists who live and work in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and West Virginia, and in the District of Columbia.